Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 02:11:57 +0200 From: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@lpt.ens.fr> To: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> Cc: Salvo Bartolotta <bartequi@neomedia.it>, Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: helping victims of terror Message-ID: <20010930021157.A315@lpt.ens.fr> In-Reply-To: <3BB6174E.BCDCCAA6@mindspring.com>; from tlambert2@mindspring.com on Sat, Sep 29, 2001 at 11:47:42AM -0700 References: <1001447850.3bb0e1aa11dfc@webmail.neomedia.it> <20010925222900.A71817@lpt.ens.fr> <3BB216E8.89F3419@mindspring.com> <20010926202630.C10954@lpt.ens.fr> <3BB427FD.61AE3E6A@mindspring.com> <20010928144755.C7471@lpt.ens.fr> <3BB6174E.BCDCCAA6@mindspring.com>
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Terry Lambert said on Sep 29, 2001 at 11:47:42: > caste system within the country (many Indian women even in > the U.S. tend to wear caste marks, still; I know many who > do... I saw three at work yesterday). In my earlier reply to this, I assumed by "caste mark" you meant the "bindi" (the name varies from region to region), the spot which women often wear in the centre of the forehead, since that's the only thing I can think of which may distinguish an Indian woman from a non-Indian woman. Correct me if that's not what you meant. As I said earlier, not only does it not indicate caste, very often it does not indicate religion either. (Nor nationality, since you will see it in Nepal, Sri Lanka, and perhaps Bangladesh. In fact, I've seen it worn by French women in France; when I asked a waitress in a restaurant about the one she was wearing, she said it was just for "fun.") You *may* be thinking of forehead markings worn for religious reasons which tend to vary among castes (eg, Iyengars in the south have a peculiar style, and this is sported only by the men, not the women). These are increasingly rare even in India except in traditional settings and religious occasions, so while I could be charitable and assume that you were thinking of some such thing, it's far more likely that as usual you stepped way out of your field of expertise and don't have a clue what you're talking about. R To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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